Thomas Berry Shope, Jr.

Thomas B. Shope Jr. of Blairsville, Georgia, passed January 10, 2025. He was the son of Thomas B. Shope Sr. and Mattie Thompson Shope. A graduate of Southwest DeKalb High School, Tom went on to study at Yale University, North Georgia College, and earned a PhD in nuclear physics from the University of Georgia. 

After active duty in the U.S. Army, including a tour in Vietnam, Tom continued to serve his country in a 30-year career with the U.S. Public Health Service in the Center for Devices and Radiological Health (FDA), where he helped develop safety standards and regulations for radiation use in medical equipment. He was an active member and Fellow of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine. 

Tom loved the outdoors, from his summers as a camp counselor at Bert Adams Boy Scout Camp, to annual family camping trips, to over two thousand hours of volunteer trail maintenance with the Mountain High Hikers club on U.S. Forest Service trails in Georgia and North Carolina. We will miss his steady presence and his willingness to provide a helping hand to his family, friends, and community. He was a kind, caring, and patient father and husband, who always put his family before himself. 

Tom is survived by his wife of 58 years, Betty Rose, daughter and son-in-law Angela and Mark Stiefbold, son Thomas D. Shope, and three grandchildren, Madison, Quinn, and Anya. Tom was preceded in death by his brother, John T. Shope, and his sister, Sandra Shope Ellis, also recently passed. Committal service and burial will be at Georgia National Cemetery in Canton. If you would like to donate in his memory, please consider giving to the Carter Center, or an organization that protects the environment or provides public access to the outdoors.